Jökull - 01.12.1964, Blaðsíða 14

' Tííe
vsg
Fig. 8. Aerial view of the ENE face of Snæfell. Arrow 1 shows the front of the recent terminal
moraine of Hálsajökull, arrow 2 points to the old moraine. Photo: S. Thorarinsson, Sept. 9, 1964.
133) I quote the following description of this
glacier:
“The north-east glacier (A) heads in a deep
cirque, whose walls rise nearly 200 m above
the névé fielcl. The walls of volcanic tuff and
breccias are very steep and intricately sculp-
tured; no ice appeared to reach this glacier
from the summit in 1937, even by avalanche.
The glacier drops with two unpronounced steps
to end just above the surrounding plateau at
800 m, the last half a kilometre is an area of
irregular piles of moraine, very slightly vege-
tated but with slip faces, indicative of melting
ice cores. Although the pattern of moraines
72
suggests the lines of former transverse crevasses,
there were no indications of present movement
(op cit., p. 133).”
My visit to this glacier on July 25th, 1964,
was too short to allow any measurments in
order to compare the thickness and extension
of the glacier with that of 1937. If one may
rely on the 1937-map as being tolerably correct,
the snout has retreated a lot, and the lower
part of the glacier got considerably thinner
since 1937. A broad belt of terminal moraines
rises above the snout, which is covered by abla-
tion moraine. These terminal moraines look
very fresh and are still very slightly vegetated
JÖKULL 1964